| OCR Text |
Show 1888.] MR, A. THOMSON'S REPORT ON T H E INSECT-HOUSE. 121 and perforated interiorly with ten or twelve small boles, and a larger hole outside. " The necessity of this drain is evident, for owing to the aperture at the top, the rain, which falls very heavily here at times, would be apt to fill the cocoon, and thus drown the pupa ; therefore the larva constructs for itself a perfect drain, by which the water runs out as fast as it comes in." I forwarded two of these cocoons to Mr. F. Moore, asking if he knew them. Mr. Moore, in his letter to me, replied : - " They are, for a certainty, those of the Moth named Rhodia newara, described by me in the Proc. Zool. Soc. 1872, p. 578, from specimens collected in Nepal by the late General Ramsay, who also gave me a description of the cocoon." The pupae of four species of African Papilios were brought to England in September 1886 by Mrs. Monteiro. Some of these emerged soon after their arrival, and others continued to emerge up to October 15 of that year; the remainder, viz. 13 Papilio porthaon, 5 P. policenes, I P. nireus, and 29 P. morania, passed the winter in the Insect-house, and commenced to emerge again on the 2nd of April last year. The first to appear was Papilio porthaon, followed by P. morania on the 5th and 7th, P. policenes on the 10th, and P. nireus on the 11 th. I succeeded in getting a pairing of Papilio ajax, but I am sorry to say that the female died without depositing any eggs, although I procured the food-plant (Asimina triloba). In consequence of the great heat and continued dry weather experienced last summer, I was not able to rear many larvae, although I had fertile ova of most of the silk-producing Moths. Amongst the few that I did rear, it may interest entomolgists to krrow that I reared easily some larvae of Deopeia pulchella upon the common Forget-me-not (Myosotis arvensis), of which there is an abundant supply growing on the banks of the canal. I wrote to Mr. J. C. Warburg in M a y last, who was at Cannes at the time, asking him if he could send me some living specimens of this insect by post; this he was good enough to do, and, as I anticipated, a few eggs were laid en route, and a few in the case on arrival. These eggs I collected, and reared about sixteen perfect insects from them, and from these I obtained a second brood, and I have the honour to exhibit specimens of each brood this evening. Two of the larvae were taken by Lord Walsingham (who had not before seen them) to add to the collection which he has presented to the Natural History Museum. In August last Mrs. Blake, who had just returned from the Bahamas, sent three pupae of a Moth to the Insect-house. Two Moths emerged from these, and proved to be the very beautiful Composia olympia. The larva feeds upon Stephanotis. Mrs. Blake was also good enough to send at the same time a specimen of a Mygale, of which I do not at present know the specific name. This specimen I regret to say died in December, and I exhibit it this evening set in the position which these creatures assume if irritated. |
